And those scientists have provided ample evidence that human activity is indeed linked to climate change. Just last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a body made up of the world’s top climate scientists — said it was 95% certain that we fossil-fuel-burning humans are driving global warming. The debate right now isn’t whether this evidence exists clearly, it does but what this evidence means for us.
Simply put, I do my best to keep errors of fact off the letters page; when one does run, a correction is published. Saying “there’s no sign humans have caused climate change” is not stating an opinion, it’s asserting a factual inaccuracy.
Check It Out
Links to cool places or things.
There are 1,524 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 81 of 153).
NSA’s $2B Spy Center is Going Up in Flames
Whoopsie.
The National Security Agency’s $2 billion mega spy center is going up in flames.Technical glitches have sparked fiery explosions within the NSA’s newest and largest data storage facility in Utah, destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and delaying the facility’s opening by one year.And no one seems to know how to fix it.
Within the last 13 months, at least 10 electric surges have each cost about $100,000 in damages, according to documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Experts agree that the system, which requires about 64 megawatts of electricity—that’s about a $1 million a month energy bill–isn’t able to run all of its computers and servers while keeping them cool, which is likely triggering the meltdowns.
via $2 Billion NSA Spy Center is Going Up in Flames | The Fiscal Times.
Raleigh ‘Color Run’ race leads to dyed houses, towed cars
Looks like Colin Campbell at the N&O has picked up on the Color Run story.
By the way, I’m up to 16,045 page views now. Word has really gotten around.
Residents of the historic Oakwood neighborhood are fuming after a recent “color run” left brightly colored powder on houses, and some people’s cars were towed from outside their homes.
The Color Run is a for-profit 5k race where runners are doused with dyed starches along the route. They are held in dozens of cities across the country each year, billing themselves as “a race that celebrates healthiness, happiness and individuality.”
via RALEIGH: Raleigh 'Color Run' race leads to dyed houses, towed cars | Wake County | NewsObserver.com.
Residents seeing red after Raleigh ‘Color Run’ | abc11.com
Ed Crump with WTVD just ran a story on Raleigh’s Color Run fiasco (and nice headline, Ed. Sounds kinda familiar …)
RALEIGH (WTVD) — Some residents of historic Oakwood in downtown Raleigh say they are annoyed by the noise and mess left from last weekend’s “Color Run.”
Runners and volunteers played loud music and threw colored powder as part of the 5K event at Halifax Mall on Sept. 28.
However, some residents said they were really upset when their cars were towed off the street with less than 24-hours notice.
via Residents seeing red after Raleigh 'Color Run' | abc11.com.
The Snowden files: why the British public should be worried about GCHQ | World news | The Guardian
Good stuff from the Guardian.
There is a revealing moment in the most recent piece written for the Guardian by Sir David Omand, former head of GCHQ. He said that “the real debate we should be having … is about what privacy in a cyber-connected world can realistically mean given the volumes of data we hand over to the private sector in return for our everyday convenience, and the continued need for warranted access for security and law enforcement.”
That’s a total non-sequitur: Omand seems to think that just because we hand data over to Google and Facebook the government automatically has the right to access it. It’s as if, thanks to a global shortage of sticky gum, envelopes can no longer be sealed, so as a result the government awards itself a new right to mass-intercept and read everybody’s letters.
via The Snowden files: why the British public should be worried about GCHQ | World news | The Guardian.
Photographing a Color Run Will Destroy Your Camera Gear–Don’t Do It
Yikes! This color run powder is nasty stuff on camera lenses. Imagine what it must do to your lungs!
If there hasn’t been a Color Run 5k or 10k race near you, there probably will be soon. And with all that color, you certainly want to take some pictures, right? Not with your camera you don’t.
I’m never one to worry much about lens dust, but the color bombs they throw out at Color Runs are different. In the last month my lens rental business has had over 20 lenses and several cameras nearly ruined by these things. For what it’s worth, all of the renters tell us they really weren’t near any of the major ‘color bombs.’
via Photographing a Color Run Will Destroy Your Camera Gear–Don’t Do It.
Why We’re Shutting Off Our Comments | Popular Science
Popular Science is disabling comments on their stories. The research they cite shows how influential reader comments can be, undermining PopSci’s mission to promote science.
From the time I’ve spent in the reader forums of local media sites, I wholeheartedly agree that comments often do more harm than good.
Comments can be bad for science. That’s why, here at PopularScience.com, we’re shutting them off.
It wasn’t a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to do the latter.
Air Force introduces QF-16 drones
Boeing and the Air Force just introduced a new drone to their drone program: the F-16. It was the first time an F-16 has ever flown without a pilot aboard.
This video reminded me of my visit to the Tyndall drone range in 2009, watching old F-4 Phantom IIs roar over me. It was like I was back in the Navy with my destroyer acting as plane guard behind an aircraft carrier on flight operations.
Here’s a great story on the drone program if you’d like to learn more.
Goldsboro Broken Arrow
Yesterday, news outlets ran a story based on newly-declassified documents concerning the 24 January 1961 crash of a B-52 near Goldsboro which resulted in the release of two megaton-sized atomic bombs. I became captivated by the story and spent what free time I had today collecting information on it for its Wikipedia page.
I had known about the crash for some time as UNC’s ibiblio server has hosted documents about it for nearly two decades. It seemed to be an interesting plane crash story with a nuclear angle but it make me worried. What I did not know until today is just how close one bomb was to nuclear detonation, vaporizing much of eastern North Carolina and raining deadly fallout all over the East Coast.
Yesterday’s stories highlighted the fact that only one switch kept one of the bombs from completing its arming cycle and setting off a detonation 250 times as powerful as the bomb that leveled Nagasaki, Japan. While that’s certainly scary enough, today’s sleuthing revealed a much more terrifying situation. It turns out when the second bomb was found it had been fully armed. Its arm switch had been activated. No one knows why the bomb plummeted harmlessly into the ground at 700 MPH instead of reaching a thermonuclear critical mass and wiping out all living things within a 10 mile radius. Only sheer blind luck saved us from nuclear incineration.
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Hanky alert
This foreign language public service announcement is surprisingly moving.